Do hospital mergers and acquisitions drive physician burnout?

Hospital mergers and acquisitions have a negative impact on the industry's workforce, with half of physicians reporting lower job satisfaction at the hands of healthcare consolidation, according to a survey from The Physician's Foundation.

These findings come as the industry continues to zero in on healthcare workforce well-being, particularly clinician and physician burnout. Burnout has many causes, ranging from health IT overload to low pay to administrative burden.

This latest report sheds light on how healthcare consolidation is also contributing to the burnout problem.

"Across the nation, the overall wellbeing of physicians has a profound impact on their professional lives and the quality of care they can provide to their patients," Gary Price, MD, president of The Physicians Foundation, said in a press release. "Even before the pandemic, physician wellbeing was in jeopardy; now, the rapid pace of healthcare consolidation is further deteriorating the practice environment."

Overall, physician burnout is still high. Six in 10 physicians and residents report burnout, while seven in 10 medical students have reported experiences of burnout.

Notably, hospital consolidation is contributing to that problem, with seven in 10 physicians and residents and six in 10 medical students saying healthcare mergers and acquisitions negatively impact patient access to high-quality, cost-efficient care.

Doctors, residents and medical students also agree that hospital consolidation can harm their ability to practice medicine autonomously, which in turn impacts their job satisfaction.

Half of physicians said mergers and acquisitions adversely affected their job satisfaction levels, while another third (36%) said they harmed the quality of patient care, 35% said they impeded their independent medical judgment, and 30% said they negatively affected patient healthcare costs.

As changes to the healthcare landscape increasingly restrict physicians' autonomy to care for their patients, it is imperative that we implement solutions now.

Price indicated that the hospital consolidation landscape will need to change to promote the best interest of the patient and provider if the industry wants to continue to chip away at its workforce satisfaction and burnout problem.

"As changes to the healthcare landscape increasingly restrict physicians' autonomy to care for their patients, it is imperative that we implement solutions now," Price said.

Physicians already agree on some protections that could improve their clinical practice even in the wake of a hospital merger or acquisition. Nearly all (90%) agree that hospital consolidation needs to be done in a way that preserves their autonomy. Another 87% agreed consolidated hospitals need to maintain patient standards, 86% said they need to increase transparency and disclosure and 84% said they need to assess the long-term impacts of the acquisition.

Other solutions to protect against physician burnout include reducing administrative burden and changes to or removal of medical licensure questions when clinicians access behavioral health services for their burnout. Such questions can be considered stigmatizing, the report indicated.